Ontology Student Showcase

Cameron More graduated from the University at Buffalo in 2021 with a master's degree in philosophy. At UB, he studied with Dr. Barry Smith, Dr. John Beverley, and Dr. James Lawler, writing his master's project on continental metaphysics. Since graduating, Cameron has worked for various government contractors, doing applied ontology with the skills he acquired at UB. He currently works for CUBRC, Inc. and serves as secretary for the IEEE Ontology Standards Working Group.

Olivia Hobai is a UB undergraduate student majoring in Philosophy. She came to the University at Buffalo from Lexington, Massachusetts to study Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) with Dr. Barry Smith. Her applications of interest are in systemic interactions, social constructs, and common-sense experience. She is currently the Lead Editor on the Common Core Ontologies repository, one of the most widely used extensions of the Basic Formal Ontology.

Ian Knowland is currently a UB undergraduate student majoring in both Philosophy and Linguistics. His interest in Applied Ontology led him first to UB’s undergraduate Ontology Club and then a seminar with Dr. John Beverley on the topic of intelligence analysis and ontology engineering. Outside of school, Ian is a researcher associated with the National Center for Ontological Research (NCOR) and maintains a position as a Knowledge Engineer at Summit Knowledge Systems, LLC where he provides ontology solutions to a variety of industry partners and missions.

Austin Liebers is currently a UB PhD candidate who started working on applied ontology in 2022 by joining a student working group on mapping the Provenance Ontology into Basic Formal Ontology. Since then, he has joined the Common Core Ontology working group, presented Provenance Ontology mapping work at SAIC and the University of Toronto, and has been interning at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory over the 2023-2024 academic year as an ontology engineering specialist. On his own time, Austin is working on ontologies of vocalizations and card games. 

Patrick Ray is an ontologist at the Allen Institute for Brain Science where he develops and maintains ontologies, data and metadata standards, models, and knowledge graphs related to neuroscientific research. He is involved in many collaborative projects including the NIH BRAIN Initiative projects BICCN and BICAN as well as SEA-AD, with a particular interest in FAIR data sharing, data standardization, and linked data systems. Patrick has contributed to and developed many ontologies, with a particular focus on neuroanatomy ontologies, cell ontologies, disease ontologies, and ontologies related to scientific experiments and research, including scientific conclusions and evidence.  Prior to working at the Allen Institute, he completed his PhD under the supervision of David Braun, Lewis Powell, and Neil Williams. At UB, Alexander Diehl mentored Patrick and together they worked on a number of ontologies including:  the cell ontology, neurological disease ontology, neuropsychological testing ontology, the ocular disease ontology, and the retinal cell ontology (among others).

Bill Mandrick is Associate Director for Ontology Development at the RTX Model Based Digital Thread Process Control Center (MBDT PCC).  He is the primary architect of the RTX Enterprise Ontology (REO) and consults on numerous compliant ontologies that span the product lifecycle. Prior to his work at RTX, Bill developed ontologies for the Department of Defense (DoD), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He also served for 34 years in the U.S. Army in a variety of positions finally retiring as a Senior Research Fellow at the Joint Special Operations University (JSOU). Bill earned his Doctorate in Ontology at the University at Buffalo.

Peihong (Karl) Xie is currently a PhD student in University of Vienna.  When he stayed at UB, he did a research project on translating BFO axioms in terms of the strategy of temporally qualified continuants (TQCs). Besides, he is a member of the Provenance Ontology Mapping Project, who is responsible for writing the qualified terms part of the final research paper.

Ali Hasanzadeh graduated from UB in 2023 with an MA in philosophy. He worked with Dr. John Beverley and Dr. Barry Smith, writing his master's thesis on the comparison analysis of ontology-building methods. Ali is currently a Ph.D. student of systems engineering at Arizona State University, working with Dr. Farhad Ameri on IOF-SupplyChain ontology. His dissertation focuses on sustainable development and lifecycle in the supply chain. He has received a fellowship from USDA and has recently started a consultant ontologist job at the Air Force Research Lab and his activity in the IOF community is focused on an ontology of certificates.

Giorgio A. Ubbiali is currently a PhD student at the University of Milan (UNIMI) and a doctoral fellow at the International Center for Food Ontology Operability Data and Semantics (IC-FOODS).  His areas of interest are ontology of sustainability and food. Through a transdisciplinary approach spanning biology, philosophy, and informatics, Giorgio is designing strategies to support food systems stakeholders in developing ontologies and related resources to deal with the sustainability of the systems they belong to.  In 2023, he was a visiting scholar at the Univeristy at Buffalo, training in philosophy, ontology, and logic, under the supervision of Professors Barry Smith and John Beverley.

Giacomo De Colle is currently a UB PhD student. Giacomo first learned about ontology during his MA in Switzerland, during which he worked on the ontology of AI with Professor Barry Smith.  Giacomo then moved to UB and became a member of the group mapping the Provenance Ontology into the Basic Formal Ontology. Since then, he has worked with Professor John Beverley on projects related to the Common Core Ontologies, the methodology of ontology engineering, and the ontology of occupations. Moreover, he has worked with Professor Alexander Diehl on the ontology of protein conformations and has worked as an intern for OntoSys LLC as an ontology consultant specialist for Pistoia Alliance. Currently, Giacomo is devoting his research to the ontology of state actors and cybersecurity with Professors Barry Smith, John Beverley and Ryan Muldoon.